The Acts of the Apostles


Book Description

Acts is the sequel to Luke's gospel and tells the story of Jesus's followers during the 30 years after his death. It describes how the 12 apostles, formerly Jesus's disciples, spread the message of Christianity throughout the Mediterranean against a background of persecution. With an introduction by P.D. James




The Relation of St. Paul to Contemporary Jewish Thought; an Essay to Which Was Awarded the Kaye Prize For 1899


Book Description

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1900 edition. Excerpt: ...present a striking parallel to 1 C. 15. 36, 37. occur in the Ascension of Isaiah, which is, as we saw, a combination of Jewish and Christian materials made not later than the second century. We there read, 4. 16, 'Sancti autem cum domino venient cum vestibus suis quae supra repositae sunt in septimo coelo'; 11. 40, 'vestes vestras in septimo coelo repositas, ' etc. It is possible that this idea of a pre-existent heavenly body prepared for the righteous was present to the mind of St. Paul when he spoke of' God giving to the seed a body as he willed, ' though no stress can be laid on this point. In the earlier part of this fifteenth chapter of 1 Corinthians (verses 20-28) occurs the one passage in St. Paul which may be thought to approxi Christe Sd0the mate to the belief in a millennium, and Messianic which at anv rate appears to stand in a reign. rr close relation to current Jewish ideas as to the end. The passage is a very vexed one, and the difficulties attaching to its interpretation are hardly less than those which are met with in the section dealing with the heavenly and the earthly man in this same chapter. It is necessary to form a clear idea as to the order of events, which is slightly inverted in St. Paul's description of them. In the first place, a universal resurrection appears to be spoken of. 'As in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive' (verse 22). The 7ron-e? in the first clause is certainly meant to have a universal application; and there seems to be no sufficient reason for limiting its meaning, as many commentators do, in the second clause to those who are Christ's. It is true that the Apostle is not here specially concerned with the resurrection of unbelievers. Then, there are various stages in the.




Encyclopaedia Britannica


Book Description

This eleventh edition was developed during the encyclopaedia's transition from a British to an American publication. Some of its articles were written by the best-known scholars of the time and it is considered to be a landmark encyclopaedia for scholarship and literary style.







Paul Was Not a Christian


Book Description

Pamela Eisenbaum, an expert on early Christianity, reveals the true nature of the historical Paul in Paul Was Not a Christian. She explores the idea of Paul not as the founder of a new Christian religion, but as a devout Jew who believed Jesus was the Christ who would unite Jews and Gentiles and fulfill God’s universal plan for humanity. Eisenbaum’s work in Paul Was Not a Christian will have a profound impact on the way many Christians approach evangelism and how to better follow Jesus’s—and Paul’s—teachings on how to live faithfully today.




The Apostle Paul in the Jewish Imagination


Book Description

The Apostle Paul in the Jewish Imagination is a pioneering multidisciplinary examination of Jewish perspectives on Paul of Tarsus. Here, the views of individual Jewish theologians, religious leaders, and biblical scholars of the last 150 years, together with artistic, literary, philosophical, and psychoanalytical approaches, are set alongside popular cultural attitudes. Few Jews, historically speaking, have engaged with the first-century Apostle to the Gentiles. The modern period has witnessed a burgeoning interest in this topic, however, with treatments reflecting profound concerns about the nature of Jewish authenticity and the developing intercourse between Jews and Christians. In exploring these issues, Jewish commentators have presented Paul in a number of apparently contradictory ways. The Apostle Paul in the Jewish Imagination represents an important contribution to Jewish cultural studies and to the study of Jewish-Christian relations.




The First Paul


Book Description

Bestselling authors of The Last Week and The First Christmas, Marcus J. Borg and John Dominic Crossan join once again to present a new understanding of early Christianity—this time to reveal a radical Paul who has been suppressed by the church. Paul is second only to Jesus as the most important person in the birth of Christianity, and yet he continues to be controversial, even among Christians. How could the letters of Paul be used both to inspire radical grace and to endorse systems of oppression—condoning slavery, subordinating women, condemning homosexual behavior? Borg and Crossan use the best of biblical and historical scholarship to explain the reasons for Paul's mixed reputation and reveal to us what scholars have known for decades: that the later letters of Paul were created by the early church to dilute Paul's egalitarian message and transform him into something more "acceptable." They argue there are actually "Three Pauls" in the New Testament: "The Radical Paul" (of the seven genuine letters), "The Conservative Paul" (of the three disputed epistles), and "The Reactionary Paul" (of the three inauthentic letters). By closely examining this progression of Paul's letters—from the authentic to the inauthentic—the authors show how the apostle was slowly but steadily "deradicalized" to fit Roman social norms in regards to slavery, patriarchy, and patronage. In truth, Paul was an appealing apostle of Jesus whose vision of life "in Christ"—one of his favored phrases—is remarkably faithful to the message of Jesus himself.